Hallmark Moments
by snchills
Summary: Dean sends Sam a card for his 16th birthday and for the next few birthdays they pass it back and forth until Sam leaves for college. Even after Sam leaves Dean keeps writing in the card.


Authors Note: I like to write "existence" stories. Stories that serve no purpose, have no plot or point, they simple exist in the world. This story is no different. Thanks for reading.

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Way in the back of the Impala's trunk Sam found it, an old birthday card tucked inside a book of ancient latin texts. It fell out as soon as Sam opened the book and landed among the trunks weapons. He was about to dismiss it when he realized what it was. Dog eared and dirty, and almost totally ripped apart along the fold from it being opened and closed a million times, Sam picked it up and stared at it for a moment.

_"Oh my god!"_ Sam gasped to himself as he felt his hands start to shake. Slowing he opened it and started to read the sentiments written inside.

Suddenly it was his 16th birthday all over again. He had gotten the card in the mail, something that had never happened before in his entire life. Even more surprising was the fact that it was from his brother Dean. The boys hardly ever got mail, so Sam was more than a little confused when John handed it to him after coming back from the post office.

"What's this?" He remembered asking John when he handed it to him.

"I don't know kiddo, why don't you just open the damn thing and find out." John chuckled as he turned and walked away. Sam ripped the envelope opened as he headed down the hallway to his bedroom and pulled out the card inside.

"What the hell?" Sam asked he sat down on his bed and looked at the front of the card. It was a silhouette of two boys, arms around each others shoulders, against a sunset walking down a road. Opening the card, he was even more struck by the sentiment inside considering who it was from and how adamantly Dean was opposed to any sort of _chick flick_ moment.

_"Brothers by birth. Best friends by choice."_ And underneath Dean had written.

_"I couldn't find a damn birthday card so I had to get this girl card instead and if you ever show it to anyone EVER, it'll be the last birthday you ever have. Happy 16th dude." _

He was still reading it over when Dean walked past his room and looked inside.

"Oh hey, you got it." Dean said as he stopped and leaned against the doorway, a sheepish grin on his face.

"Dean I don't know what to say." Sam answered as he looked up at Dean.

"Then don't say anything tiger, I get it." Dean answered with a smile and a nod. "Is this chick flick moment over with yet?"

"Chick flick moment officially over with." Sam answered with a laugh as he tucked the card back in the envelope and set it down on the bed.

Later that evening, Sam remembered to slip the card in his duffel bag with the rest of his meager keepsakes. It sat there mostly forgotten until January rolled around and the Winchester's found themselves stuck in a motel room in Devils Lake, North Dakota for the duration of a three day long blizzard. Dean's birthday was nearly over when they suddenly remembered what day it was. Sadly neither John nor Sam had had a chance to get Dean any sort of present with the weather as bad as it was. They couldn't even go out for a celebratory dinner, so they settled instead for reheated coffee and stuff out of the lobby's vending machines.

"It's just another day, guys, really it's cool." Dean tried to make his father and brother feel better about missing his birthday.

"But Dean it's your 21st birthday, you know, you're all legal and stuff." Sam lamented as he dropped down on his bed.

"I'll make it up to you son, I promise." John apologized as well.

"I know you will guys," Dean said patting his brother on the shoulder.

Later on, before Dean got ready for bed, he reached into his duffle and found something odd inside. It was Sam's card from his 16th birthday. Sam's name was scribbled off the envelope and Dean's was written instead. Glancing over at his brother, who was now suddenly preoccupied with his sneakers, Dean opened the envelope and pulled out the card. Sure enough it was the same card he'd give Sam the year before but this time it had a new sentiment written inside.

_"Happy Birthday to the worlds greatest big brother from the worlds greatest little brother. Sorry it's a girl card, the duffle bag was sold out on everything else."_

"Thanks Sammy." Dean said with a huge smile on his face. "This is the best card ever."

And so the tradition began.

For Sam's 17th birthday, Dean wrote something snarky about how tall he was getting and stuck the card in the leg of Sam's jeans, where he found it while trying to get dressed. For Dean's 22nd, Sam emptied the coffee can and stuffed the card inside with a comment about how coffee was going to stunt Dean's growth.

For Sam's 18th birthday, Dean left the card in the bottom of his duffle, with no new sentiment written, and no plan on giving it to his little brother. The gesture seemed pointless given the way the day had been going. Both Sam and John had spent the better part of the day fighting and Dean had spent the day alternating between keeping them apart and trying to keep them together. A month later Sam graduated high school and took off during a final fight with John and Dean never got the chance to give him the card that year.

Nor the year later, or the years after that.

Dean still kept writing inside the now almost destroyed card though, for each birthday he didn't have with his brother. He stopped at Sam's 22nd birthday and then he buried the card in the trunk for what he thought was forever.

Sam stood there now, all these years later, the card in his hand and a tear in his eye.

_"Happy Birthday Sammy. Wish the hell you were here but I guess you're happier where you are. Can't say the same about me."_ A clearly drunken Dean scribbled that year for Sam's 19th birthday.

_"Wish I could tell you in person but that's never gonna happen so I guess this will have to do. Happy Birthday Sammy."_ Was Dean's sentiment for Sam's 20th birthday.

For Sam's 21st all Dean wrote was _"See above, Happy Birthday dude."_

For Sam's 22nd birthday, Dean was so doped up on pain meds after a hunt went south, he wasn't sure he wrote anything coherent at all and for the most part he hadn't. All Sam could make out through the smudges and what appeared to be blood was a simple line.

_"I miss you. Happy Birthday."_

"Aw damn it Sammy, where the hell did you find _that_?" Dean asked as he came up along side Sam and saw what he was reading.

"You hung on this Dean, all these years, why?" Sam asked stilled moved by what he had read. "I would have thought you would have gotten rid of this a long time ago."

Dean shrugged his shoulders and hesitated to find the right words. Really the intent was to bury the card and all the pain that went along with it, but he never once thought about destroying it. He crumpled it in anger, more than a few times, but each time he smooth it over again and put it back inside the trunk. He lost the envelope outside Denver and opened and closed it so many times it about fell apart. Finally he put it inside the book and never planned on seeing it again.

"You never came home…." Dean started before stopping when he saw Sam start to go all emo on him. "Dude please, oh man c'mon, enough with the chick flick crap. I figured, you know, to give it to you someday if I ever got a chance to. Look here, keep it, Happy belated birthday."

"Dean I can't….." Sam started then changed his mind. "You're getting this back, on your next birthday, I promise."

"Oh god kill me now." Dean moaned. Sam laughed quietly at his brothers discomfort before putting the card, very carefully this time, back inside the book and taking the book with him.

"Well then don't write anything sappy, okay, because I'll have to hurt you if you do." Dean lightly threatened.

"Dean you came back from the dead, I think I'm entitled to write something sappy." Sam retorted with a laugh.

"Okay, you got me there." Dean joked back before heading into the motel room. "Do you think you can spring for an envelope Sammy, cuz you know, I sorta lost the last one."

"What, now you want an _envelope_?" Sam gasped with fake incredulous.

"Dude, I came back from the dead…." Dean answered with his winning Winchester smile.

The End.


End file.
